Dems to Moss Landing: Drop Dead

Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church's Town Hall the other day at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories was well attended by locals, but deeply sad and profoundly disappointing. The Dem Supe and several aloof bureaucrats repeatedly dissembled and deflected when presented with plain spoken complaints about Moss Landing's demise.

Moss Landing has become a Ghost Town

Driving to the meeting through Moss Landing village's rugged streets was a tour of shuttered restaurants and stores. Moss Landing has long been one of my fave coastal towns, a jewel of authentic California. Now, little is left alive. Worse, the toxic overhang of the recent BESS Bomb Disaster looms over the town.

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the cCons who centrally control California view people as the problem. If only those pesky people could be removed from the California coast, the Dem's decarbonization work could be done. After that, the "progressives" could rest.

Bureaucrats blame Climate Change & a $1.5B Backlog

Climate Change is an all-purpose hall pass for Dem politicians, from Supervisor Church all the way up to Governor Newscum. Worse, it gives bureaucrats license to ignore economic stagnation and incipient blight. Listen to the arrogant Housing & Community Development Director dismiss reports of citizens' inability to get building permits and water hookups.

Climate Change trumps the reality that Moss Landing is undergoing attempted murder by the Democratic powers-that-be. Even sidewalks are too much to ask for, with Supe Church lamenting the "huge price of a sidewalk." Translation: Good luck not getting run over.

Fixing the Dolan Road death trap? That's somewhere in Monterey County's $1.5 billion maintenance backlog. Translation: It'll be years at best before even death traps to get fixed.

The Moss Landing BESS Disaster Remains Overwhelming

Should the BESS industry be shut down for a decade or two, like the nuclear industry was after Three Mile Island? That was my follow-up question at 42:33. His answer was a politician's jig, but he kinda, sorta said yes.

Salt of the Earth, Salt of the Sea: Citizens Abandoned

Full Video

2 Other Notable Moments

• 7 minute mark: Ghost Town Warning

  • Citizen: “Buildings are becoming abandoned. Businesses can’t succeed here. It’s nearly impossible to get a water connection downtown. And now, there’s new language in permits for climate change. The county is abandoning Moss Landing."

  • One bureaucrat says “We don’t do water. We do sewer.” What's a citizen to do?

  • Craig Spencer, Dir Housing & Community Dev, starts speaking about Climate Change. He doesn’t address the pain and crisis that results from not being able to get permits or water, as the town atrophies.

  • Citizen: “What about the empty lots around Moss Landing?”

  • Bureaucrat replies “there is an ability to get water.” How remains a mystery.

  • Citizen: “What about getting a permit?” BS answer.

  • Bureaucrat: “You can apply to build a skyscraper in Moss Landing. It doesn’t mean it’ll get approved.” How about that for a BS answer, dripping in arrogance.

• 12:56 mark: A woman from Moss Landing decries that there's no safe place to walk. “I’m about ready to go down to the local pavement supply place, grab some blacktop and slap it down on the side of the road. I feel like my life is in danger.” Also, the Dolan Road - Hwy 1 intersection is a disaster. Dolan Road itself is a death trap.

Notes from a Tragedy

• Climate Change language in permits makes permits impossible.

• Grant from Coastal Commission put “lots of guardrails because of CCC”, the California Coastal Commission.

• Catch-22

  • Planning dept says you’ll never get water to empty lots. 

  • County guy says you can get water, but you can’t get permits. 

• Emergency alerts for everything but Moss Landing fire.

• County has $1.5 billion in deferred maintenance 

• 12 shrines to traffic deaths on Dolan Road!

• California Coastal Commission won’t allow Hwy 1 to go 4 lanes. 

• Moss Landing was 2nd largest power plant in the world decades ago. Now, it's becoming a ghost town.

• Woman on Elkhorn Road lives half mile from the evacuation zone. Her horse had surgery, so they couldn’t leave when the fire exploded because they wouldn’t be able to return, so their horse would die. Her deck is covered in white ash. She’s sick. Her eyes are troubled. Her horse has cobalt 800x higher than normal.